East Coast feels Irene's aftereffects

By Alesha Williams Boyd and Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAY

PATERSON, N.J.
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Irene, the hurricane that ravaged the East Coast over the weekend, hurled one more insult at New Jersey on Wednesday, pushing the raging Passaic River over its banks and flooding Paterson, the state's third-largest city.

By Matthew Cavanaugh, Getty Images

A volunteer removes debris from an office Wednesday that was flooded in Tropical Storm Irene.

Irene, which battered the coast with high winds and deluged inland areas, is blamed for 45 deaths in 13 states.

President Obama, who will visit Paterson on Sunday, declared major disasters in New Jersey, North Carolina and eight New York counties, making residents eligible for low-interest loans and grants for repairs and temporary housing.

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue said the storm destroyed more than 1,100 homes and caused $70million in damage. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it destroyed 600 homes, inundated six towns, damaged 150 major highways and 22 state bridges, and ruined 140,000 acres of farmland. He estimated the damage would reach $1 billion.

Irene's unrelenting rain swelled rivers all over New England. In New Jersey, rushing water from the Raritan and Millstone rivers flooded low-lying neighborhoods in Manville, where 1,000 of the borough's 3,000 homes suffered water damage, administrator Gary Garwacke said.

April Evans, 35, and her two children fled the waters in Paterson twice. On Tuesday, she left her flooded home for refuge in her mother's apartment, then were evacuated when that building lost power and the parking lot flooded.

"It was a double whammy," Evans said. "The last time I saw the apartment, I wanted to cry."

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